The present invention relates to valve-controlled internal combustion engines, and more specifically to such engines which include curved air inlet channels that are capable of supplying a flow of combustion air to the internal combustion chambers having a twisting flow pattern.
Internal combustion engines which include curved air inlet channels for supplying combustion air to the internal combustion chambers with a twisting flow pattern, e.g., so as to help decrease pollutent emissions from the engines, are known. However, in such known engines the amount of twist in the air flow will necessarily depend not only on the constructional features and tolerances of the inlet channel, which tolerances will vary even for engines consecutively produced on the same assembly line, but also on the velocity of the air as it flows through the curved inlet channel. Such air velocity will be dependent on various engine operational characteristics such as engine speed (rpm), quantity of fuel injected, timing of fuel injected, etc. Thus, for any given valve-controlled internal combustion engine as the engine operational characteristics change, the amount of twist in the combustion air flowing through the inlet channels will change and, since such changes will necessarily cause deviations in the twist amount from the optimum level, increased engine pollution emissions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a valve-controlled internal combustion engine of the type which includes curved air inlet channels which will include a means for controlling the amount of twist in the combustion air flowing through the inlet channels and thus allow the optimum amount of twist to be present in the combustion air as it enters the valve chambers, i.e., regardless of the specific constructional details of the individual engine and/or regardless of the particular momentary operational characteristics of the functioning engine.